Rhino population drops by 90%

Rhino population drops by 90%

JAKARTA: The Sumatran rhino, the most endangered of all
rhinoceros, is fast heading to extinction with its population at
one of its last reserves in the country, dropping by 90 percent
in 14 years to 50, an official said on Sunday.

The director for forest protection and nature conservation at
the forestry ministry, Widodo Sukardi, said the number of
Sumatran rhinos at Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS) was now
down to about 50 from around 500 in 1990.

The TNKS is the country's largest national reserve, straddling
four provinces on Sumatra island -- West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu
and South Sumatra. It is one of the last reserves for the small
and hairy Sumatran rhinoceros.

The dwindling rhinoceros population of the park was mostly due
to illegal hunting and poaching by people in Bengkulu and West
Sumatra, a Bengkulu province official said.

The officials called on people in and around the TNKS to
refrain from hunting the rare animal as well other wildlife in
the reserve.

To keep the Sumatran rhinos from extinction, Sukardi said his
office would relocate captured rhinos to a safer location in the
Way Kambas National Park in Lampung province, also on Sumatra.

The International Rhino Foundation has estimated there are
fewer than 300 Sumatran rhinos surviving in very small and highly
fragmented populations in Southeast Asia with Indonesia and
Malaysia being home to most. --AFP